FMP/Free Music Production

Free Music Production (FMP) is a German record label that specialises in free jazz.

FMP originated from the New Artists Guild, which was an informal cooperative of musicians in the mid-1960s.^[1] In 1968, The New Artists Guild sponsored the Total Music Meeting, a festival that presented different forms of music from those performed at the Berliner Jazztage.^[1] The name FMP was adopted the following year and the group "began operating as a cooperative venture under the administrative guidance of a former double bass player, Jost Gebers [...] At some point the operation of FMP transferred from the cooperative to Gebers alone."^[1]

The label's first release was Manfred Schoof's European Echoes.^[2] Specialising in free jazz from the beginning,^[1] FMP soon released recordings by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, bassist Peter Kowald and drummer Detlef Schönenberg.^[2]

The collective ended in 1976 and Gebers, who was running the company part-time, decided to found a sub-label, SAJ, with drummer Sven-Ake Johansson.^[2] This concentrated on experimental and avant-garde music, releasing recordings by musicians such as Hugh Davies, Heiner Goebbels-Alfred Harth and Yoshi Wada.^[2] In the late 1980s, SAJ was discontinued and CD releases were numbered from CD 1.^[1]

A lot of FMP's releases have been recordings of concert performances, including those that it organised.^[2] In 1988 FMP recorded Cecil Taylor in Berlin '88, an 11-CD, award-winning collection.^[1] According to Grove, "Vinyl stock was deleted in 1992".^[1]

In 2000 FMP-Publishing became the new owner of FMP, but a legal battle ensued between Gebers and the new group.^[2] In 2007, he returned to being in charge of the label.^[2] Some albums have been reissued by other labels, which include Intakt Records and Atavistic Records.^[2] In its first 40 years, FMP released "over 200 LPs and around 140 CDs".^[2]

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